


The Way We Were

by seraphic_gate



Category: Tales of Zestiria
Genre: Fluff, Gen, Pre-Game(s), young sorey/mikleo
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-11-25
Updated: 2016-11-10
Packaged: 2018-05-03 08:08:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 3,758
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5283248
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/seraphic_gate/pseuds/seraphic_gate
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Drabbles from the youth of Sorey and Mikleo.  Sorey and Mikleo are the town of Elysia's joy.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Treasure

**Author's Note:**

> So these are just random drabbles of cute scenes I imagined when Sorey and Mikleo are young. Not a lot too it, but enjoy.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mikleo loses his very special treasure, and Sorey is determined to help him find it.

“Ah, I found you!” 

In the center of the old chamber, under a sunbeam sneaking in from the many levels above, Mikleo was drowning in his over-sized blue robe. 

Sorey ran up to him, little feet in clogs thunking against the floor. “Okay, my turn, now count to fifty!”

But Mikleo didn't look up. He held his arms around himself, huddled to the ground. “I lost it.”

“Huh?” Sorey knelt, bare knees on stone. “Hey are you cold? You want to use my cloak?”

“No, I lost...”

Sorey noticed what was different. There was nothing glinting from between Mikleo's eyes. “Where's your thingy?”

“I lost it!” He buried his face against his knees until he was a shaking little ball of Mikleo. 

Sorey placed his hand on his shoulder. “Mikleo, don't cry! We'll find it.”

“I'm not crying!” But when his head popped up, his eyes were red and wet.

Sorey giggled and got to his feet. “It probably fell off your head because it's too big. Why do you keep wearing it everywhere?”

Mikleo turned his head towards the ground and his tiny voice got lost in the echoing chamber. “It's my treasure.”

“Did you say treasure?” Sorey rubbed his head, thinking. “I guess it does have a sparkle gem on it and it's gold and stuff. Is it magic?”

Mikleo was up and throwing his hands down by his sides wildly. “No, I've just always had it!”

“Oh, okay. So it's something you've had since you were a baby.” 

“It's my treasure.”

Calm now, Mikleo watched Sorey thinking aloud. Sorey always revealed what he was thinking on his face. “So if we look for it, we'll be hunting for treasure!”

Mikleo nodded his head up and down. An exchange of grins, and they bounded back into the ruins one after the other on small, light feet. 

The two traced over Mikleo's path. The light was weak as they passed through corridors where no sunlight could reach, and they had to look very carefully so as not to miss a small circlet in a crack or a shadow.

“Do you have any treasures?” 

Sorey thought about it. “You mean. Something that's been with me since I was a baby?”

“Yeah.”

“Hmm.” Sorey tapped his chin. Then he turned and looked at Mikleo. “You! You're my treasure!”

“What?”

Small, chubby Sorey was stronger than one might expect. He put his arms around Mikleo and lifted him up, spinning him around. “I found treasure, I found treasure!” he sang. “Mikleo's my treasure!”

“That's not what a treasure is!” But from this height, he could see the sparkle of something on the path ahead. “Stop stop, hold still!”

Sorey froze in place even though his arms were getting tired. 

“There, I see it!” Mikleo waved and pointed.

The beloved circlet was resting in plain sight on the path back to Elysia. Mikleo squirmed out of Sorey's arms and started running. 

“Hey, wait for me!”

Mikleo bumbled down the corridor and cupped his hands over the circlet, as if it was a bird that might fly away. “Got it!” he said, and held it up with such a big grin on his face. Sorey smiled because Mikleo was smiling. Crying Mikleo was no good. 

“Here, let me fix it,” Sorey said. “You have to notch it right or it's just gonna fall off again.”

A happy little tune echoed through the ruins as Mikleo hummed to himself, so happy. Sorey brushed the feathery bangs out of his face and fastened the circlet to his head. 

“Thank you, Sorey!”


	2. Humans Get Houses

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mikleo is bitter when Sorey gets his very own house to live in.

When Sorey and Mikleo turned six, the grown-up seraphim in Elysia (which included everyone except for Mikleo, but he preferred not to make that distinction) built a hut just for Sorey. Until then, Sorey had lived with Gramps and Mikleo. He and his dear friend slept curled up with their elder, who rarely slept himself, but was always there to give Sorey a soft pat between his shoulders when he ge became fitful in sleep.

When Sorey was only six years old, he got a whole house to himself. Mikleo hated it. Sorey was spoiled. He got such special treatment because he was the only human. Mikleo didn't get a house to himself. Why should Sorey?

Gramps put his hand on Mikleo's head and spoke to him in his wise old voice. “Humans like Sorey change so much over time, and our relationship with him will also change. This is not a loss to be mourned, not a death. It is like a blossoming flower, growing more beautiful and intricate with each petal that unfolds.”

Mikleo didn't really understand what flowers had to do with Sorey, but he wondered if he could build an even bigger house to go off into on his own in just to show him.

The first night that Sorey slept in his new house, Mikleo sat on the step outside the door with his arms crossed hugging his small body, his feet firmly planted on the ground. If Sorey wasn't there, what was the point of sleeping? Seraphim like Mikleo didn't need to sleep. But after about an hour of starry darkness and nothing to do, Mikleo stretched his arms out and yawned. 

He thought about returning to Gramp's hut, but he didn't want to lay his head on Gramps' lap if Sorey wasn't going to do it. 

“Oh, look at that,” came the murmering voice of a wind seraph woman. “Sorey's resonance is high enough now that he doesn't need to stay close to any of us at night. It's better now that he has a little space for himself. Humans have such odd needs, after all.”

“True,” her companion, this one a water seraph, sighed. 

“But oh my, there's little Mikleo outside his door like he doesn't know what to do.”

“Aw, poor little Mikleo. I've never even seen him without Sorey.”

Mikleo kicked a rock. Stupid Sorey and the stupid house. Seraphim didn't need beds and bathrooms and kitchens and fire places. 

The women left and Mikleo refocused his efforts on being obstinate. Eventually somebody else would notice him and stop, and maybe ask him if he wants a house, too.

But nobody came. Just as he cosidered giving up, he began to hear a weird sound from inside Sorey's house. Maybe a baby bird got stuck in the roof? No. It was siffling. And as he realized that, it grew louder into a sob. Sorey was crying. Why would he be crying? He had his own house. 

Mikleo forgot all about the unfairness of it, and stood up. He tried the door and it opened easily. Inside, it was dark and quiet except for the sound of Sorey's sobbing. Sorey was in his bed, hidden under a thick blanket, shaking and crying. 

Mikleo didn't think twice about lifting the blanket and getting into the bed.

“Mikleo,” Sorey choked, and threw his arms around his neck. His face was puffy and red. A bubble of snot expanded and contracted as he took deep, chest-racking breaths. His lips quivered. “I'm scared.”

“Why are you scared?” Dumb Sorey. 

“Because I'm all alone and it's dark. I'm not supposed to have the fire by myself.”

“Sorey. There's nothing in the dark that can hurt you.”

“What about the heliums?”

“What?” 

“The monsters gramps told us about.”

Mikleo nodded. “Hellions.”

“Yeah, what if they come to get us?”

“If we ever see one, we're supposed to run away, all the way home. So don't worry about it.”

“But we're at home now and what if they get in?”

“How?”

“In the fireplace or the closet or under the bed or, or--” he ran out of examples, but Mikleo got the point.

“Hellions can't enter through Gramps' domain.”

“But what if--” The rest of the sentence was muffled gibberish as Mikleo pressed his hand against Sorey's mouth to silence him. “Mmf!”

Mikleo looked into Sorey's green eyes still rimmed with red from his tears. He wanted him to know how deadly serious he was. “No Hellion will ever get you. I'll chase it away with my magics.”

“You will?” 

“Yes. You don't have to ever worry. Don't ever be scared. Because I'll protect you.”

It was a relief when Sorey's bawling faded into a big smile. He wiped his face with his sleeve and, to Mikleo's dismay, wrapped it right back around him. “Okay, I won't be scared if you're here.” He kept his arms tight around Mikleo and began to drift off to sleep again with his head pressed against the boy's shoulder. He kept uttering Mikleo's name as he drifted off to sleep. 

Mikleo knew he wouldn't be able to move until morning, but it was okay. Humans needed to sleep.


	3. Kiss Limit

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sorey loves everyone in Elysia so much, the elders make a rule about the number of kisses he's allowed.

Sorey woke up and rolled over in his bed to find Mikleo curled up, no bigger than one of his pillows, beside him.

“Wake up, wake up!” He shook Mikleo by the shoulder.

Mikleo rose and rubbed the sleep out of his eyes with a tiny yawn. Sorey planted his knees in the bed beside him and pinned him down with both arms. Half-asleep, he began to wiggle futily under Sorey's surprising stength.

“Yuck!” Mikleo squealed as Sorey gave him a big kiss on his forehead, just underneath the circlet he wore at all times. “Only one, you only get one each day! That's it!”

“I know,” Sorey said, sitting back into his side of the bed. He pouted. “I have to wait a whole day for more Mikleo kisses.”

“Guh!” Mikleo tossed in the bed. “Go kiss somebody else!”

Sorey thought he would do just that. “I have to kiss gramps!” he said, and waddled to the door in his bare feet. “Then I'm gonna kiss Mason, and then Ayo and Seles and Lena and...”

He continued listing seraphim's names as he put his shoes on, and Mikleo glared at him from the bed. It was barely even light out at this time in the morning. “You only get one per day, so why does it matter how early you do it?”

Sorey looked back at Mikleo like that was the stupidest question he'd ever heard. “Well because it's been _a whole day_ since I gave everybody hugs and kisses!”

Mikleo got out of bed and knelt by Sorey's feet. “You messed up your laces again,” the little seraph sighed, and began to unlace and start over on Sorey's boot.

Sorey waited and let Mikleo finish tying him. “Thanks!”

Mikleo stood again and huffed a breath. “Get your cloak, it's cold still.”

“Okay, yeah!” Sorey threw the cape over his shoulders. It was so large, there was plenty of room to wrap Mikleo in it as well. “You don't be cold either, okay?”

“I'm a seraph.”

“But you don't need to be _cold_ though.”

Mikleo sighed. “Let's just go.”

Sorey bumbled his way across the tall grass from his house to Gramps's hut, trying to match his movements with Mikleo's while keeping him wrapped up in the big cloak with him. Mikleo may be a seraph, he thought, but he sure was warm under that cloak with him.

They entered the hut and Sorey threw off the cloak, running to Gramps's arms. “Good morning Gramps!” he said, and kissed the elderly seraph's cheek.

“You two are up early this morning.” Gramps laughed and then pretended to make a stern expression at him, wagging his finger. “Now Sorey, you didn't kiss Mikleo more than once, did you? Because you know if you do that, then you don't get to kiss him tomorrow.”

“No, no, only one time!” Sorey looked wildly to Mikleo to confirm his story. Mikleo nodded, although not without a troubled sigh. “I only kiss everybody once every day, that's the rules!”

Gramps laughed and gave them both a pat on the head. “Okay, as long as you're following the rules. We wouldn't want you to smother Mikleo again like the last time.”

Sorey grinned and then scampered out of the hut just as swiftly as he'd entered, taking all his energy with him. Mikleo exhaled deeply and stayed behind. “I'm not sure this is better than before.”

Gramps smiled and put his hand on Mikleo's head. “Mikleo, you groan like an old man, and you're not even seven yet. I have boogers that are older than you, you know.”

“Ew, that's gross! And Sorey kisses too much! Why do humans like kissing anyway?”

Sorey burst back into the hut. “Mikleo!” he shouted. “I can't find Mason!”

“Mason has gone to get supplies for you young ones,” Gramps said. “He won't be back for another three days at least.”

“Aw no, so then I can't get kisses and hugs from Mason? What will I do now?”

Gramped laughed. “You can give him three extra kisses when he returns, I promise. I'll keep a tally.”

“Okay okay, so who's next? Is it... Ayo! I have to go give Ayo her kiss and get a hug!”

“Is this going to happen _every_ morning?”

“Well,” Sorey again looked at his friend as if he didn't understand why there was a question. “Yeah? Why don't you want kisses and hugs, Mikleo?”

“What's more important is Mason is bringing us presents! _Presents_ , Sorey! What are we going to get? Do you think he'll bring us some books?”

“Don't get too excited,” Gramps said. “He went to go and get tools for us here in Elysia, so we can craft the things that we need.”

That concept was too mundane to reach them. “Wow,” Sorey gasped, “maybe he'll bring us one of those things we saw the picture of! You remember, the weird hornless goat that tilts back and forth?”

Mikleo mimicked his wide-eyed expression. “Or maybe a small artificial person!”

“You want a rocking horse and a doll?” Gramps sighed. “I suppose once we have more tools, there's no reason we can't make a few toys for you. Although, I doubt even that'll keep you occupied for long.”

“But he won't be back for three day? Auhg!” Sorey moaned up at the ceiling as if he was in pain. “That's so long!”

“Oh yes, _so_ long,” Gramps laughed. “Don't you need to go kiss somebody else, Sorey? You still haven't given everyone their kiss today.”

“Right! Come on, Mikleo!”

Sorey took Mikleo's hand and pulled him along. Mikleo let himself be dragged with only minor protests. “Okay, okay, as long as it isn't me!”

After everyone in Elysia had been kissed once and hugged several times, Sorey returned with Mikleo to his own house, yawning and rubbing his eyes. The sun was finally coming up, but Sorey was too tired to stay awake.

“I told you not to get up so early,” Mikleo said. “I want to go see the ruins today.”

“I'm fine,” Sorey yawned. He fell into his bed. “I'm just gonna take a nap.”

“Take your shoes off at least.” Mikleo frowned and unlaced Sorey's boots. “Why do you like kissing so much, anyway? It's dumb.”

“Because it makes me happy.”

“Yeah but why, though?”

“I dunno.” Sorey laid in the bed sprawled out, his small body and short limbs not even covering half of the bed. Mikleo crawled in beside him. “You're lucky you don't have a kiss limit! You could have as many kisses as you want.”

“But I don't want any.”

“Why not?”

“I dunno.”

Sorey groaned. “Aw, I wish I hadn't already kissed you when I got up because I want a kiss before bed!”

“But you're just napping.”

“Still though, I can't sleep good without it.”

Mikleo sighed and leaned over to plant a kiss on Sorey's cheek. “There, now go back to sleep already.”

Sorey smiled. “Thank you, Mikleo! I'll sleep real good now.”

“Just go to sleep!”

 

 


	4. Flowers for Natalie

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sorey and Mikleo do something wrong and have to accept punishment.

The two boys, both now the age of six during those few months of the year between Sorey’s last birthday and Mikleo’s next one, stood before a collection of their elders, bowing their heads.  Both were drenched in the suffocating odor of too much perfume, their quiet submission interrupted by a cough from each.

 

Sorey was so confused, and the confusion made him petulant and angry.  He puffed his bottom lip.  It also made him sad, because Natalie wouldn’t even look at them.  She stood in the back of Gramps’s hut with her eyes cast away, next to Mason who touched her shoulder and whispered something to her.  He smiled and tried to sway her, but she didn’t look up.  She was quiet while the others talked.  

 

Sorey and Mikleo could usually tell how much trouble they were in by how many of the town gathered to give their input on how to address their naughty behavior, and this time pretty much everyone was there.  

 

He stole a glance to his side and found Mikleo steadfast in his capitulation.  He wasn’t any less confused than Sorey, but Mikleo had always (in the six years they had both been alive) known better than Sorey when to shut up and listen.

 

“It was just stinky water,” Sorey said.  “We didn’t break anything!” The pretty crystal bottle was fine, they just poured out the weird stuff inside.  He didn’t understand why the elders had yelled and scolded them, or why Natalie was so sad.

 

He heard Mikleo grumble from beside him, but his dear friend didn’t offer anything to help their situation.

 

Gramps huffed and tapped his walking stick on the floor.  “It is called perfume, and it is a very valuable substance which is prized by ladies.”

 

Mikleo piped up.  “What does it do?”

 

“What it does is not the point!”

 

He sulked.  “I was just curious.”

 

“Not another word out of either of you.  You both smell like you bathed in it!”

 

Mason came for forward and knelt on the floor in front of them so that he was nearly at their eye level.  It was an affable gesture, lacking in the anger and disappointment of the others.  Sorey and Mikleo raised their heads hopefully.  Mason let out a big sigh.  He held the shiny bottle in his hands, the top of it with its spray thingy uncorked and the contents empty.

 

“Boys, this bottle was full of perfume.  It smells very good when you use just a little bit, and it’s supposed to last a long time.  It stinks because you’ve each sprayed about a hundred times the amount you’re supposed to use.”

 

Both boys mouthed an “oh” almost silently, realization dawning on them.  The sprayer had been so much fun, they both got carried away.  They figured the point was to make other people smell funny and laugh, which is what they were doing to each other with it.   

 

Mason went on explaining.  “I brought this one here as a gift for Natalie, and she cares about it very much.  Now, how would you feel, Sorey, if Natalie tore all the pages out of your Celestial Record?”

 

Sorey’s heart skipped at the very thought of such a thing. “I’d be really sad!”  

 

“And Mikleo, what if Natalie broke your circlet?”

 

Mikleo’s hands went instinctively to his head.  “Please don’t do that, we’re sorry!”

 

“Now now, nobody’s going to break your things!”  Mason laughed to himself and then cleared his throat to regain his composure.  “Two wrongs don’t make a right.  But you are going to be punished, and it’s going to be a big one this time.”

 

“We’re sorry!” Sorey wasn’t as concerned about the idea of a punishment as he was that he could have hurt Natalie’s feelings so badly.  He prostrated himself on the floor.  “We love Natalie, we didn’t know it was her treasure!  We never would have done it if we did!”

 

Gramps tapped a hand on Mason’s shoulder for him to leave them, then on Sorey’s to prompt him to rise.  “Let this be a lesson to you boys,” he said in his wise voice.  “You never know what a thing means to the person it belongs to.  You have respect other people, their valuables, and their wishes, or else you may hurt them when you don’t mean to.”

 

Sorey and Mikleo hung their heads, both equally ashamed and ready for punishment.

 

“You’ll both be confined to your own houses,” he said.  “For three days.”

 

“Ah!”  Sorey couldn’t imagine being by himself for three days!  But he bit his tongue and decided not to complain, because he had done something very bad, after all.

 

“And if you try to sneak out and see each other, it’ll be a whole week!”

 

A  _ week _ ?

 

“D-does it start right now?” 

 

“Yes, and iIt’ll end at this time of night in three more days.”

 

Sorey looked at Mikleo desperately.  “Can I give Mikleo a hug first?”   
  


a soft laugh swept through the room.  Even Natalie smiled.  Gramps did, too.  “Yes, of course you can give your Mikleo a hug goodbye.  You’ll see him again in three days.”

 

Sorey waddled over to Mikleo on his knees and squeezed him tightly around his neck. “Sorry, it’s my fault!  I sprayed it on you first.”

 

“I did it back,” Mikleo said.  He put his arms around Sorey’s waist and held him.  Sorey didn’t want to let go.

 

Mason sighed again.  “Okay boys, come give your Natalie a big hug, too, and tell her you’re sorry.”

 

“I’m sorry, Natalie!”  Sorey cried, sniffling back tears.  He reached her outstretched arms first, and was joined by Mikleo who said the same.

 

She held them both in her arms and stroked their heads.  “I forgive you, boys.”

 

Mikleo looked up at her.  “Is there anything I can do to fix it?  With my artes maybe I can!”

 

Natalie shook her head and petted Mikleo’s hair gently.  “Some things you break and you can’t fix them,” she said.  “All I want is for you boys to receive your punishment and learn your lesson.  Never go into someone’s house again without their permission, and ask before your use their things.  You can repay me by growing up into kind, thoughtful, men who will think about how their actions affect others.”

 

Sorey and Mikleo promised.

 

She smiled.  “But first, I think you two will need a bath.”  The smell was making everyone’s eyes water.

 

They managed to remain confined to their rooms, no matter how boring it was, or how much Sorey wanted his Mikleo kiss, or a hug from Gramps.  And when it was done they went into the fields together to pick all the flowers they could for Natalie.  


End file.
